SCELC ACS 2022-25 Read & Publish Open Access Agreement

Eligible Authors

If you (1) are the article’s corresponding author, (2) choose to publish your article open access in an ACS journal, and (3) are an affiliated researcher (faculty, lecturer, staff, student) at one of SCELCs [[subscribing institutions]], your article is covered under this agreement which will make it more cost effective for you to publish OA. The agreement also continues to provide reading access to ACS journals for all all affiliated researchers.

If I choose to publish open access, how do payments work?

Payments work differently during the two phases of the agreement:

Phase 1: Articles accepted from January 1, 2022 through June 30, 2022 are eligible for the discounted APC of $3,000, but not for the option to receive full funding of the APC from the subscription pool. If you are an eligible corresponding author and your article was accepted during this period, you will be notified and given instructions for how to publish open access with the discount in ACS’ Journal Publishing Agreement system.

Phase 2: Articles accepted after July 1, 2022 are eligible for both the discounted APC of $3,000 and the option for full funding of the APC from the collective subscription pool. If you are an eligible corresponding author and you select the open access option in ACS’s Journal Publishing Agreement system after your article has been accepted, you will be asked whether or not you have research funds to pay for open access publishing. After selecting either option (“yes” or “no”) you will receive an invitation to log into the payment processing system used by ACS, CCC RightsLink, to complete the process.

(It is necessary to set up an account in RightsLink first; if you do not have an account, you will be prompted to create one.) 

Then click through the following steps in the RightsLink system, including: 

Indicate whether you have research funds available to pay the author’s portion of the article processing charge. 

• If you have the research funds to pay the $3,000 APC, select “Bill me” in CCC RightsLink and proceed to enter the billing details.
• If you do NOT have research funds to pay the $3,000 APC, select “Seek funding” in CCC RightsLink to have your request routed to the libraries' subscription pool. You do not need to contact your campus’ library to make the funding request. Your request will be processed  within one business day and if approved, your charge will be paid in full by the libraries. 
  • [[You will then also be asked to identify the reason that full funding is needed, choosing from a menu of options (e.g., the research is not grant-funded and you have no other sources of funding available; the grant budget did not include money for publishing; etc.)]]

What if I don't have a grant or other research funds?

If you don’t have research funds and you want to publish open access, the libraries will pay your full article processing charge. See above under “if I choose to publish open access, how do payments work?”

What if I don't want to publish open access? Can I still publish with ACS?

Yes. While the we recommend the open access option, and you can rest assured that there will be no additional charge to your Library, where and how you publish is your decision. The agreement with ACS does not mandate open access publishing, nor does it dictate your journal selection. Rather, it makes the open access publishing option for ACS journals more affordable. As with SCELCs other open access agreements, you can opt out. 

How can I learn more?

Review the ACS page & demo video on "How to Publish Open Access Under a Read + Publish Agreement"